I032 • WEKA 



shore (whence one of its names — Kelp -hen) and feeding chiefly 

 on shell -fish and other marine products, while that which is 

 commonly identified with the latter ranges widely through the 

 interior of the South Island of New Zealand — examples from 

 the western side of the Alps being however apparently distinguish- 

 able by wanting the barred flanks, and in that respect resembling 

 another form which inhabits the North Island, and is, according 

 to Sir AV. Buller Avho named it 0. greyi, peculiar thereto.^ That 

 these three or four forms should be justly considered good species 

 is very probable ; but that more species should exist in New 

 Zealand seems unlikely. What was presumably an Ocydromus, and 

 if so was doubtless a distinct species, inhabited Norfolk Island, 

 when discovered by Cook {iit supra, ii. p. 148), but it must have been 

 long extinct, and no specimen is known to exist. "^ Another species, 

 0. sylvestris, smaller and lighter in colour than any we now have, 

 was found in 1869 to linger yet in Lord Howe Island {Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1869, p. 472, pi. XXXV.), where the existence of such a bird was long 

 ago known, and the remains of a few individuals are preserved in 

 collections.^ A remarkable form from J^ew Caledonia, originally 

 described as Gallirallus lafresnayanus, was referred by Mr. Sclater 



■" It was for some time called 0. earli, the name under which Dr. Sharpe 

 {torn. cU. p. 66) still has it, but Sir Walter {B. N. Zeal. ed. 2, ii. p. 105) states 

 that the type of that form {Ibis, 1862, p. 238) agrees with some specimens from 

 the South Island, and he recognizes it as a distinct species. He also admits an 

 0. traaliyiiiterus which is certainly not that of Lafresnaye, and if distinct should 

 probably be called 0. hectori. An extinct species has been indicated by Mr. H. 0. 

 Forbes {Tr. N. Z. Inst. 1892, p. 188) from the Chatham Islands. 



- The subject of Sparrman's figure, above mentioned, may possibly have been 

 from this island, the birds of which were distinguished by their bright colouring 

 (c/. ISTestor, p. 628). 



^ It has lately been referred by Dr. Sharpe, though its affinity is not e.xplained, 

 to the genus Cahalus, the type of wliich is Eallus modestus, a small species 



{Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxiii. 

 p. 331, pi. vi.) perhaps 

 still surviving on one of 

 the Chatham Islands, 

 which some ornitholo- 

 gists have refused to 

 acknowledge, holding it 

 to be the young of E. 

 dieffenbachi (itself also 

 referred occasionally to 

 Ocydromus, but being 



Rallus DIEFFENBACHI. (Froiu Buller.) apparently a modified 



Hypotxnidia), known 

 from the unique specimen in the British Museum ; but the judgment of its 

 original describer, Capt. Hutton, is now admitted, and should never have been 

 doubted after his full account of it {Ibis, 1873, pp. 349-352). 



